Don’t like reading? Here are the photos from today. Today’s Photos
Again today, I was concerned with my humor and what I’d say to entertain everyone, and then it happened. We were on the road just 30 minutes and just outside Oklahoma City when a truck jerked over in front of me. The speed limit was 70mph and I was doing 72 (cruse control set). I hit the brakes about the moment I saw two cars sitting on the side of the road shinning their lights back towards us. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but the truck got back over, I reset my cruse control and continued on. A couple minutes later I look up and see someone coming up fast so I pull over to the right hand lane to let them get by. They jerk in behind me and turn on the brightest lights I think I’ve ever seen.
I pull over, he comes up and informs me that I was speeding and tail gating a semi. Hmm, speeding? I asked… Yes he said. I said, what did you clock me at? He said 72mph. I said really? You pull people over for 2 miles over the speed limit? He said “zero tolerance here. I said, well, as for the truck I was behind, he cut me off when he came around the curve and saw you guys sitting on the side of the road with your lights in our face. ”Uhh, could you step back here behind the car please.”
Now I know what you’re thinking. I was thinking it as well, those Tennessee guys really did take out a warrant or something. Well, I go back to his truck and get in. He writes me a warning and of course didn’t list how fast I was going or the circumstances in which I found myself behind a truck. Only that I was speeding and tailgating.
Anyway, we continued on without a problem and almost decided to trek on to the Grand Canyon, but I opted to stop in New Mexico due to being a bit tired of sitting in a car. When we got here around lunch I struck up a conversation with a guy and got the name of the best place to see in a one day stay. We were not disappointed. The place was amazing and we got lots of pictures.
Ah, just when you thought I was finished, I have to lay one more funny (they just don’t stop out west it seems). When we got to the place we were going to hike, the guy told us it closed at 5pm. It was only 3pm so we’re thinking this was plenty of time to hike 3 miles and get pictures and check it out. At this point we had no idea what we were about to see. Well, once there, things took a bit longer and we just couldn’t get enough. We ended up literally jogging down the 600 ft hill, out and around another 1 mile part of the trail to get back to the car. We reached it at 5pm and jumped in to head out. The drive out was along a 5 mile stretch of dirt road and we didn’t reach the gate until about 5:05pm.
Yes, you guessed it. The ranger dude left us and locked us inside the heavy steel gate. We looked around for a good 5 minutes and found a sign with a phone number on it. About the time I dialed the number and got an answering machine the guy rolled back in to let us out. So it seems the Mexicans here in New Mexico are not without a sense of humor (or rudeness).
Well, I’m sitting here at 12pm Georgia time, 10pm here, trying to get all these hundreds of photos uploaded so you guys can see them. Not sure I’ll pull it off tonight but will do my best.
Tomorrow is on to the Grand Canyon with one small stop along the way. See you then…
–glenn hancock